Absolutely, say thousands of pole dancers and the rapidly growing number of international and national federations transforming what was once the exclusive property of strip clubs and cheap bars into a respectable — and highly athletic — event.
“I could definitely see pole dancing in the Olympics,” said Sato, who, a dancer since the age of three, out-twirled a bevy of athletes from 11 countries at the second International Pole Dancing Fitness Championships in Tokyo two months ago. “I would love to win a gold medal.” Hong Kong-based Ania Przeplasko, the founder of the International Pole Dancing Fitness Association, the sport’s fledgling supervisory body, believes Olympic recognition is only a matter of time and would be a victory for underappreciated sports worldwide.
“There will be a day when the Olympics see pole dancing as a sport,” she said. “The Olympic community needs to acknowledge the number of people doing pole fitness now. We’re shooting for 2012.” Pole dance advocates note that more unlikely sports have gotten the IOC’s nod.
Tug of war, for example, was one of the early Olympic medal contests. Equestrian events are in the Olympics, but who owns a horse? Curling, which virtually no one pays any attention to in non-Olympic years, has become one of the Winter Games’ biggest darlings. Though they are not in the games, the IOC recognizes such obscure sporting endeavors as boules, powerboating, bandy and floorball.
Then of course there’s mobile pole dancing…just think of the possibilities!
imagine the exponential increase of spectators during the olympics
Just kick out an non-sport performing art “disciplines” of any Olympic games. Infection went from ice skating to skiing, now this… Want pole-dancing as a sport? Add it as a sub-discipline of gymnastics. Acrobatics in ice skating and skiing? – combine with speed skating/skiing. You can’t just prance around and call it a sport (well, than there are those static American “sports” of baseball and football where “athletes” just stand aimlessly most of the time).
this is great
unless its my wife, mother, sister, cousin etc.
what a hyprocrite i am.
Lemme know when they add Olympic spontaneous farting.
Sure as long as they don’t have Olympic Texas Hold ‘Em Poker, than go ahead and have pole dancing. They will be just two more Olympic sports I don’t watch.
#2, Actually I would like there to be baseball and football in the Olympics. I always wondered how the Japanese would match up to the Americans in baseball.
They should require this attire for the curling competition! Would make it much more interesting to watch!
uh… yea..
What about competitive extreme ironing?
Marathon knitting.
soooooooo the judges score them by stuffing money in their g-string?
#7 There will be football in the next Olympics. Have a look at http://www.london2012.com/games/olympic-sports/football.php
This is football as played in South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and just about everywhere except the USA. According to what I have heard many of your countrymen say, what you call football could not be part of the Olympics due to drug testing.
I suspect that, as a global event, the Olympics do not consider your “football” relevant as it is a more minority sport than pole dancing or beach volleyball.
What we are all wanting is Olympic Class F**king.
For the first time in my life I watched 5 minutes of curling last night. Good looking babes. Sport?==No. Skill?==Yes. Every little thing we do is done better with developed skills.
Which brings us back to – – – – – .
Add chess and a spelling bee and championship Scrabble. The Winter Olympics sucks and any change would be a good one.
And add true “Survivor” as in “only one person leaves the island alive” … I’d watch that,
I think most guys watch beach volleyball for the same reason they watch pole dancing.
How about the Jaguar Downhill?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=yPw5SoFaoIU
Frankly, I don’t think any form of “dancing” should be a considered a “sport”. And isn’t that what figure skating really is. And also if you can’t do it year round, without leaving your town. This includes a lot of things involving ice and snow. So why isn’t water skiing an Olympic event, if every other kind of skiing is?
The events they choose are ones they believe will attract the most views, and commercial endorsers, who sell the sport’s equipment. And various countries need to put their two cents in about some national sport. Like Canada’s Curling. And Norway’s Biathlon. Every kind of weird ass sport is being horseshoed into the Olympics, to please each nation. And when American athletes manage to beat their ass at them, consistently. Then the sport gets dropped. Personally I think Luge and Bobsledding should be removed. It’s just to dangerous. And costs more than any other sport to build a track for. And the speed records really depend on the track engineering. So is it fair to compare one year against another. The tracks are never identical. And going for faster records each year, is courting danger. As we’ve already seen this year.
#12
Frankly, some sports are too big to have in the Olympics: baseball, football, soccer and basketball. Why have the World Cup *and* Olympic soccer? That’s silly. All four of these sports (for the men) are simply bigger than the Olympics and should be removed or never considered.
Just because something is athletically difficult does not make it a sport. People just cannot get their heads around that idea. IMO, anything in which the outcome is not determined by time or an objective score (e.g. hockey, water polo etc.) shouldn’t be in the Olympics.
So we’re back to sports talk now eh? How many of you shot your stupid kids due to them playing any type of lame sports? And considering that I didn’t get any volunteer’s for me to do my part I take it that many of you have looked up “sports” on wiki or Google.
Therefore, please spare me your comments and talks about what you consider sports and don’t. Apparently, your view is insanely personal and subjective.
So for the last time,
NFL is a sport, Baseball is a sport, Olympics have sports, dancing is a sport, cricket is a sport, and so on.
If I hear bashing of NFL again this is coming right back out, especially from the retards that claim to love the sport.
Well, the IOC are basically a bunch of whores anyway, so it seems like a logical next step.
There is certainly an athletic aesthetic to competitive pole dancing:
Video from the International Pole Dance Fitness Championship 2009 in Tokyo
Not sure if that qualifies it as eligible..maybe and exhibition sport??
Any activity that requires a judge should not be part of the Olympics. There is probably a place for such activity, but not in the company of sport.
As a guy who has been teaching for 6 years, I have to say I can’t see it happening. Check out my post.
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!
Just think if they could cobime pole vaulting and pole dancing into one sports. You have the vault to get your self up to the top of the pole, then you “work it’ as you come down. SWEEEEEET!